Physics Engine Threading Design and Object-Scalability in Virtual Simulation

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is investigating technologies and methods to enhance the next generation of tactical simulation-based trainers. A primary research objective is to increase the number of simultaneous Soldiers that can train and collaborate in a shared, virtual environment. Current virtual programs of record cannot support the Department of the Army's goal to train at the company echelon (200 Soldiers) in a virtual environment and are limited to the platoon echelon (42 Soldiers) of concurrent trainees. ARL has identified scalability limiting factors to be the simulator's physics engine and threading architecture. In this work, two threading designs are evaluated on how they perform with high amounts of physics load to determine which thread design is optimal for future virtual trainers.